After spending most of my 20's living in vehicles, the miracle of hot running water is not lost on me. It is still and will always be a luxury.

Ha!

Also when you're poor you can't stock up on things when they're on sale.

this really makes me realize just how insanely rich elon musk truly is. he's like a country & king unto himself. this is wrong on so many levels. no single person has any reason to be this wealthy.

My daughter is one of these. I'm a psychology professor and she was in one of my classes. We started talking about the internal narrator and she was sooo confused!

I've heard of these people and I still don't understand. I'm constantly telling myself stories. I was bored at work and related the history of the Soviet Space Program to myself today. From Sputnik to Mir.

Likewise, people lack the ability to create mental pictures of things they're not looking at.

I wouldn't know what to do with a quiet mind.

Had this very discussion with my partner. She asked for some quiet during a long drive, we happily drive along for an hour or so in silence, I internally narrated every minute of the time, then she states that not thinking for that time was so relaxing, I obviously asked how she didn’t narrate it and was met with a ‘what?’ face, no idea that I had an internal monologue on the go 100% of the time, my anxiety filling every second, even when we were talking. The two of us are cut from different types of cloth!

Sometimes I wish I could set my brain to pause. That way I'd have no thoughts, no feelings, no speeches in my head, no noise in my head, nothing at all but silence. So the only way for me to do this is to sleep, as my brain is SO active with thoughts it tires me out during the day.

My inner monolog NEVER shuts up. Even when I was in a medically induced coma for 3 weeks it NEVER shut up.

Although it makes sense given how obliviously a lot of people live their lives, i am utterly unable to grok the concept of not having an inner narrative continuously running in my head

Inner monologue? Sometimes I have inner dialogue or trialogue. There is the sceptic, the always excited and sometimes accountant joins in. The engineer usually doesn't join those meetings, but he is the the one explaining why something is not so good idea when those three finally make a decision. Or he takes over my full brain capacity to make a plan how something can work. Sometimes I wonder if I should seek professional help, but as long as those guys work together, it is fine I guess.

the answer to "how do you think" is i think more in abstract. like if i'm planning the things i need to do i more "see" how i'm going to do them. where i need to go, who i need to see, if i need to use a telephone, that sort of thing. those options sort of float through my mind and i pick what i can do or what i need to prioritize etc. how i make decisions is by determining how i feel right now and how i will feel by the time the action needs to be taken and then i think about how the results of whatever my decision are will make me (and/or others) feel. so it's a lot more feeling and probing than spelling things out. interestingly, i've read that we non-monologuers apparently often make excellent writers. certainly, when i sit down to write, i don't feel the process of thinking almost at all. the words just flow out of my fingertips. or i'll write something out and then revise it. but i don't think out each sentence before i write it, that would be madness. it feels like i have to write it out in order to know what i want to say. i project it onto the screen and then read it back to myself. it is also a very fast process. i don't know any other way to put it. i also don't usually think before i speak, often to my detriment. i've trained myself to think more before i say things, but usually the words are out of my mouth before i know it. so it's not like we have no mental literacy, but we don't usually think in full sentences inside our heads. more like we're describing the pictures and feelings inside our heads in words we think other people will understand so they can also see and feel these things.

I talked this over with my inner monologue and we've decided that this fact is quite crazy.

How do you think about anything if you can't do this I'm truly asking this question can someone answer me please thank you

This has always fascinated me

I just talk like normal xD I'm constantly talking to myself I never find it weird cuz its how I organise my thoughts I can't do it inside my brain it just doesn't work

My mind never stops... I thought this was normal... its speed is like a F1- car, i think... it used to be faster... 🤷‍♀️🤣

Wait, what?

This is one of those things that I just can't imagine. My inner monologue is always on. I don't understand how someone without one can solve complex problems without talking it over in their head. I also can't imagine seeing images so clearly in your head that you don't need an inner monologue. I can only picture something in my head for like two seconds and then it's gone.

I don’t think it’s all that commonplace

Those people who have multiple inner monologues going should share one with someone who doesn't have any. And we know who those people are.

Apparently, only 30-50% of people have an inner monologue.

must be a lonely life

Maybe they do have an inner monologue but are not aware of it, or even know what is?

I grew up watching "Magnum PI" so I can't NOT narrate my life.

I have an inner monologue that I perceive when reading, writing or planning sentences to say, but not for general thoughts. I think this concept exists in a spectrum, some people's brains are chatty, some people's not so much. But the formation of ideas and reactions is the same.

I can't shut off my iner monologue even at night. Sleeping is a big problem for me

I think all people have the inner monologue they may ignore it but it's there. Even the most psychotic have it. Mentally disabled have it. Its there always whether your listening or not.

EVERYONE has an inner voice. Some people are so unaware of themselves they can't hear it. These people also can't think for themselves and only know how to repeat what other people told them.

I just learned this, too. I can't imagine.